Despite the fact that in the US alone you’re around 76 times more likely to be struck and killed by a bolt of lightning than you are fatally attacked by a shark, the men in gray suits still occupy a unique place in the psyche of most.
But as always, the International Shark Attack File’s (ISAF) yearly worldwide report is here to calm the choppy waters of hysteria around the true facts.
Carcharodon carcharias, also known as the great white shark.
Last year, ISAF investigated 140 alleged interactions between human and shark, with an unusually low number of 64 unprovoked and 41 provoked bites in 2019. This puts it inline with 2018’s 62 unprovoked bites, on a decreasing trend from the five-year average of 82. There were five human fatalities, two of which were confirmed as unprovoked – one in Réunion and one in the Bahamas – which is two fewer than the four unprovoked fatal attacks in 2018.
ISAF defines a provoked attack as one where a human initiates physical contact with a shark, such as a diver getting bitten when trying to grab one or bites that happen while removing sharks from fishing hooks and nets. Unprovoked is where a shark attacks a live human in the shark’s natural habitat with no human provocation.
Enter the waters around Cape Cod at your own risk - and make sure to read the signs first.
Maintaining long-term trends, it was the US that saw the most encounters with 41 bites, up significantly on 2018’s 32 bites but still well below the five-year average of 61. Again keeping it consistent, Florida was the most prolific bite spot with 21 attacks, more than half of the US and nearly a third of the global totals. Importantly though, none was fatal.
Commenting on the declining numbers, director of the Florida Museum of Natural History’s shark research program, Gavin Naylor, explains how it may reflect changes in the migration patterns of blacktip sharks – the most bitey species in Florida waters.
Blacktip sharks prefer fish-based snacks over Floridians.
“We’ve had back-to-back years with unusual decreases in shark attacks, and we know that people aren’t spending less time in the water,” explains Naylor. “This suggests sharks aren’t frequenting the same places they have in the past. But it’s too early to say this is the new normal.”
Australia claims the runner-up prize once again with 11 unprovoked bites and no fatalities, with the Bahamas coming in third with two bites, including the fatal multiple tiger shark attack on Californian Jordan Lindsey. Elsewhere, the Canary Islands, the Caribbean Islands, Cuba, French Polynesia, Guam, Israel, Mexico, New Caledonia and South Africa, once a shark attack hotspot, saw one encounter each. The last was, as I mentioned previously, the fatal bite off the coast of Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean when 28-year-old surfer Kim Mahbouli was attacked while surfing a notoriously sharky stretch of water around the port of Saint-Leu.
World champ Australian surfer Mick Fanning had an infamous encounter with a shark during the Jbay ... [+]
Indeed, surfers and other water-based boardsport enthusiasts are at greatest risk of a shark encounter, accounting for 53% of them. That’s not surprising considering they spend most of their time splashing around in the surf zone, which coincidentally happens to be the shark’s favored stomping ground too. Swimmers and waders account for a quarter of all attacks with free divers, snorkelers, body surfers and scuba divers accounting for most of the rest.
One of the more curious trends to emerge was the surprising appearance of the notoriously elusive foot-long cookiecuttter shark, responsible for three bites in 2019 – all nighttime encounters on long-distance swimmers training in Hawaii’s Kaiwi Channel. There are believed to be only two other unprovoked cookiecutter encounters on record, one also in Hawaii in 2009 and one in North Queensland, Australia in 2017.
The fearsome cookiecutter shark.
So named for the shape it chomps out of its victims – usually tuna, seals, dolphins and even great white sharks – the cookiecutter is often considered more of a parasite that scoops a lump of flesh with its rubbery lips and circular jaw “acting like a toilet plunger with a blade in it,” according to Naylor. It may sound amusing but if you get bitten you’ll know about it!
If you haven’t already guessed, however, the chances of getting bitten by a shark are extremely, unimaginably low. Consider the billions who enter the ocean each year framed against the five fatalities, only two of which were classified by ISAF as unprovoked. Now consider the global fishing industry which kills around 100 million sharks and rays each year. With the zeros out that’s 100,000,000. And that’s before we take into account factors like habitat loss, pollution and other human-driven changes threatening every species in every ocean.
Shark fishing - and finning in particular - is one of the world's most destructive fisheries ... [+]
Sharks are key to a healthy ocean habitat. They eat weak and diseased animals, improving their environments and actually (ironically) helping fish stocks stay healthy. They themselves reproduce slowly and struggle to recover from such decimation, but evidence shows enforced protection leads to recovering populations.
Recent reports from the US east coast of ‘dense aggregations’ of sharks following fishing vessels is not, as some claim, proof that populations have already recovered. Census data shows these to be highly localized and more likely because there’s less prey for them to eat so they’re following the easy food sources and feeding direct from fishing lines, which can lead to more human encounters.
Sharks are essential to maintaining healthy ocean habitats for us all.
If you do ever find yourself at close quarters with carcharodon carcharias or any other shark species and feel at threat, ISAF has some advice to help protect yourself or you could go the modern route with the Ocean Guardian Shark Shield Technology, which is effective enough for the Australian government to offer a part rebate on the price if you buy one.
The likelihood is that you’ll never even see a shark in the water, let alone be attacked by one – and you should never let the thought of it stop you diving right in.
